


- Juice of two limes
- Juice of 1/2 orange
- 1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
- 1 clove crushed garlic
- 1 teaspoon honey (feel free to leave this out if you use more sugar or vice versa. I was playing around so added both)
- a pinch or two of dried chili flakes
- 1 tablespoon chopped chives
- 1/3 cup rum
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 large boneless, skinless half breasts of chicken, cut up for the kabobs
- 1 cup barley
- 2 1/2 cups stock (I used chicken)
- 2 bell peppers, in large pieces for the kabobs and chopped small for the barley.
- 2 shallots
- a few mushrooms
- oil for stir-frying barley
- soy sauce, about 1 tablespoon
- To prepare the marinade, combine the ingredients from the limes to the 2 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Add the chicken pieces and marinate for at least 1 1/2 hours. If you use the honey, you may want to combine it with the citrus first and heat to dissolve.
- To prepare the barley, combine with the stock in a small saucepan, bring to a boil then simmer until cooked. I started out with a 2:1 ratio of liquid to barley but that wasn’t enough. I kept adding stock until the barley was cooked, after about 45 minutes. I might have ended up adding an additional 1/2 cup. Fluff with a fork and let cool slightly.
- Prepare the kabobs on skewers, alternating meat and vegetable pieces. I ended up with 4 skewers with a couple of extra pieces of chicken.
- For this dish, I used my stovetop cast iron grill pan. If you use your grill outside, cook as you normally would. On the stove and over high heat, it took about 10-12 min for my kabobs to cook. At one point, I covered the grill pan so the steam would help the meat cook a bit faster without drying out the chicken.
- While the kabobs are cooking, heat a bit of oil in a pan over high heat and cook the peppers until they start to brown a little, about 2 minutes. Add the barley and stir-fry for another two minutes. Add the soy sauce, stir and take off the heat.
- Plate and serve.
Not only does this dish look STUNNING but you cannot beat the combination of flavors. Love this! Thanks so much for sharing.
This looks wonderful! I love all the flavores infused in this dish!
Fabulous! And I would have never thought to stir fry barley, but it looks amazing! And lucky you seeing Mr. Zamperini speak…I loved Unbroken.
The kabobs look amazing, but I’m really intrigued by the stir-fried barley – I haven’t had barley as a grain side, and this sounds delicious 🙂
I’ve only ever had barley in soup. I love the idea of stir frying it. Yum!
This looks so wholesome and delicious. Great inspirational story about Mr Zamperini.
This looks so delicious!! Such a great and inspirational story. Thank you for your post – made my day!!
Love the flavors you chose for the chicken marinade – you can’t go wrong with rum & citrus! The stir-fried barley sounds delicious too.
What an amazing dish! I wish I had this right now; both beautiful and delicious!
The kabobs look delicious!…and I’m with your husband – I love cabbage salads, though I’ve never tried it with balsamic, avacado and mushrooms – definitely on my to do list!
Cheers!
I have had chicken skewers before but I’ve never have stir fried barley. What a great backdrop for the chicken.
The kabobs are gorgeous, but the barley really interests me. I have a bag in my pantry. I am always looking at it and wondering how to use it (besides soup). Thanks. GREG
If I could experience an eighth of the adventurous life Mr. Zamperini has lived, my sense for adventure will surely be satiated. While I wait, this gorgeous dish will satisfy me 🙂 I’m sure it would satisfy Mr Z, too!
These are beautiful! Anything with rum in it and I’m totally in 😉 Great Post!
I didn’t know who was Mr. Zamperini. Love your story telling. I’m always drawn to it. Your chicken kabobs look fabulous, your presentation and with “stir fried” barley! Very nice! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!